Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Landmarks Preservation Commission had a busy day yesterday, drawing large crowds on two matters where community sentiment is clear.

Rudin/St. Vincent’s in the Morning

In the morning the Commission moved uptown to the Lang Student Center at the New School to consider the Rudin/St. Vincent’s real estate development proposals. This bigger venue filled up so the attending public’s groans and sighs resonated loudly. The public reacted with disappointment to each of six commissioners' votes to allow the destruction of the landmarked O’Toole building in order to subsidize St. Vincent’s Hospital. There was firmly supportive public applause for each of the four commissioners who voted against O’Toole’s destruction. There is much more to say about this, which we will post later.

Hearing on Proposed Prospect Heights Historic District

In the afternoon the Commission took testimony about the proposed Prospect Heights Historic District. The crowd was large. It was universally in favor of the district’s creation, unless you want to take into account a woman who did not know that this wasn’t the forum to ask about the location of a fire hydrant, or a district creation supporter who wondered if there could be some sort of exemption at street level for Flatbush storefronts.

The Atlantic Yards megadevelopment abutting the proposed district was mentioned countless times. It was cited repeatedly as the threat which makes creation of a historic district so important. People such as Atlantic Yards opponent City Council Member Tish James were careful to refer to the “proposed” Atlantic Yards. She lingered on the word “proposed” in a deliciously savoring way.

Marty Markowitz, he of the boundless enthusiasm (and questionable “charities”), gave tribute to the threat and negativity of Atlantic Yards in a roundabout way when his boundless enthusiasm overflowed into praise for Prospect Heights as a neighborhood full of “activists.”

Noticing New York Not Within the Framework of Simply Giving Thanks

We provided our own Noticing New York testimony. We were one of the few who, when we testified, did not feel that we had to speak within the framework of simply being thankful for what was offered. The district is being created by the hard work and pleading of community representatives. Noticing New York is independent and has not directly taken part in those negotiations.

As we have written about before, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is very responsible for the cataclysmic trajectory of Atlantic Yards through its avoidance of action with respect to historic buildings like the Ward Bakery Building. Whatever some might want to pretend, we do not believe that Atlantic Yards should be treated as political past tense. The Atlantic Yards project is neither dead nor alive, and it is insufficiently apologized for by the Bloomberg administration. The project cannot survive without the continued complicity of the administration and all sorts of necessary public approvals still hang in the balance. We believe that the administration and those working with it need to be constantly reminded of the political price they pay for Atlantic Yards until the project is formally, once and for all, dead.

It is no secret that the Prospect Heights district is a case of “historic district creation by guilt.” (We’ll be coy, so we won’t suggest that this a description of the process that is floating freely among Landmarks staff.) Creation of a historic district by guilt is not adequate compensation to the community.

In our testimony, Noticing New York referred to how the editorial page of the New York Times recently called for this commission to have the political will needed not to be outflanked by developers. We told the Commissioners about how we had added our own our own thoughts to those of the Times with our Noticing New York article which we attached and supplied as part of our written testimony. (See: Sunday, October 19, 2008, Building the Right Landmarks Case; Wrong Building)

LPC Chairman Tierney’s Defense of the LPC

LPC Chairman Tierney responded to the Times’ editorial with a letter to the editor published by the Times on October 25, 2008. Tierney took issue with the Times assertion that the Commission was missing in action:

Far from “missing,” the record shows that during the Bloomberg years the Landmarks Preservation Commission has experienced its most productive period in recent history. In fiscal year 2007 alone, 1,158 buildings were designated — more than in any other single year since 1990.

* * *

This unparalleled activity has been made possible through close collaboration with the public and the preservation community.

The “Holes” in Chairman Tierney’s Argument

The number of buildings the LPC has designated is not the point. When it comes to being “outflanked by developers,” it is not what the Commission does, but what the Commission doesn’t do; not what the Commission protects, but what the Commission, serving the Mayor’s willingness to accommodate fellow billionaire real estate developers, does not protect. In our article, we were (we think correctly) more flattering to the Commission activities that the Times: “the Commission is highly capable and does do its job excellently when permitted by the Mayor.” Still, since the Commission is so capable it is all the more frustrating when it refrains from being so. Protection is not protection if it is Swiss cheese especially to those who would abuse their power. Protection which is a bulwark only when threat is not present is not protection. Clearly, if the Commission had worked in “close collaboration with the public and the preservation community” as Chairman Tierney described above, the Ward Bakery Building would have been saved for adaptive reuse.

No doubt the Greenwich Village Historic District community, which is now threatened by the Rudin/St. Vincent’s real estate development, feels the same way.

Proposed Prospect Heights Historic District: The Hole in the Whole of What LPC Offers

This is why Noticing New York, while very much favoring the creation of a Prospect Heights historic district, felt that it was just as important, or more so, to point out the hole in the historic district that is being offered. Extracted from our testimony set forth at greater length at the end of this post:

The importance of allowing our precious historic Brooklyn to weave together is the reason why the hole in the proposed historic district is so disconcerting. It will separate historic Prospect Heights from historic Fort Greene. We know that the odd shape of the proposed Historic District is disingenuously intended to accommodate the similarly unjustifiably odd shape for the proposed no-bid Atlantic Yards project. The Boymelgreen wrench shape of the Atlantic Yards project is notoriously odd, shaped exclusively for the purpose of generating windfall eminent domain and upzoning profit for Forest City Ratner. Looking at these two jigsaw pieces it is easy to put the puzzle together.

Weaving together Brownstone Neighborhoods

In our testimony we were conscious that while the way in which our historic neighborhoods weave together is extremely important, this might be considered tangential to historic preservation concerns. Thankfully, the presentation of LPC’s own presenter also focused on the way that these neighborhoods had historically developed, each weaving into the other.

(The pictures, adjacent and in our Noticing New York testimony, below show a Disney-fied recreation of New York-style buildings that can be seen in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. These projects are quite commendable and flattering to New York, but not as valuable as what we have here in historic Brooklyn.)

Ward Bakery Building: Hundredth Anniversary Testimony

Patti Hagan also testified about the loss of the Ward Bakery Building, noting that she had passed by the site of demolition. She spoke of the irony that the building’s 100th anniversary should coincide with Forest City Ratner’s destruction of it.

This comment is being offered in the name of Noticing New York, an independent entity dedicated to the proposition that developing New York and appreciating New York go hand in hand and I speak as an attorney and urban planner experienced in real estate and government.

There is a well known axiom about real estate that “they are not making it anymore.” This isn’t true. We are making more real estate these days. In fact, it is easy to make a lot more of the tall stacks of apartments that allow for anonymous and nondescript high-rise living. What we are not building anymore are neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Fort Greene and historic Prospect Heights.

If you are wealthy you can afford to pay top dollar to live in Brooklyn Heights, where property values have been rising phenomenally. But you can have a very similar urban experience much more affordably in diverse, historic Prospect Heights.

I am, perhaps, inaccurate. We are building places like Park Slope and Prospect Heights. I refer you to projects of “New York-style brownstones” being built in Alexandria, Virginia and Potomac, Maryland by Builder/Developer EAY (see attachment). Looking at this New York recreation you know that others, elsewhere, are valuing what we have in Brooklyn, New York.

But building a new Disney-fied version of what we have does not truly build more of what we value. It doesn’t have the true history, and it doesn’t organically weave together the way that the brownstone neighborhoods of Brooklyn do.

The importance of allowing our precious historic Brooklyn to weave together is the reason why the hole in the proposed historic district is so disconcerting. It will separate historic Prospect Heights from historic Fort Greene. We know that the odd shape of the proposed Historic District is disingenuously intended to accommodate the similarly unjustifiably odd shape for the proposed no-bid Atlantic Yards project. The Boymelgreen wrench shape of the Atlantic Yards project is notoriously odd, shaped exclusively for the purpose of generating windfall eminent domain and upzoning profit for Forest City Ratner. Looking at these two jigsaw pieces it is easy to put the puzzle together.

We ask you to proclaim this commission’s independence from the Mayor. Say no to corrupt no-bid projects and save the historic part of Brooklyn that should be allowed to weave naturally together in a healthy urban fabric.

The editorial page of the New York Times recently called for this commission to have the political will needed not to be outflanked by developers. We added our own thoughts to those of the Times with our article, attached hereto, calling for your greater independence to pursue this same goal.

About Me

NOTICING NEW YORK & NATIONAL NOTICE are both independent entities managed by Michael D. D. White of Hop-Skip Enterprises. Michael D. D. White is an attorney, urban planner and former government public finance and development official. *** Noticing New York covers New York development and associated politics. National Notice covers national policy and economic issues *** Contact: MichaelDDWhite(at)gmail.com